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  1. #61
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toppy View Post
    Blizzard is quiet well known for its employee hero worship. Essentially, once you reach a certain point, no amount of fuck ups will get you fired and you can do what you want. Think of it like vidya tenure.
    I doubt that. I definitely believe that, like most companies, Blizzard doesn't want to just toss people away after investing tens of thousands into someone, but there is always a limit.

  2. #62
    Immortal Tharkkun's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Advocate Cheeks View Post
    Sadly this is dead on. But society today can't handle their fragile ego's being smashed so Blizzard and every company must encapsulate all their communications in politically correct terms.
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  3. #63
    How many developers at Blizzard do you read about on the internet? How many work at the studio?

    The internet creates the false impression it knows everything about the internal workings of a studio. In reality we know fuck all. They could've fired a hundred people for all we know.
    Quote Originally Posted by Tojara View Post
    Look Batman really isn't an accurate source by any means
    Quote Originally Posted by Hooked View Post
    It is a fact, not just something I made up.

  4. #64
    Quote Originally Posted by chipwood View Post
    The fact that the subs don't go to zero means blizz is still raking in millions in subs despite not spending on new content. Why on earth would they fire people for that?
    They expect the number of subs to go down as an expansion ages, then spike back up when a new one is released.
    Because the content droughts cause people to quit for good...WoD started at 10m subs and dropped to 7m after three months...then down to 5m not too long after that...i wouldnt be surprised if they are barely above 2m subs at this point. Yes it's still millions for them and i get that, but the goal is to keep as many people as possible throughout the expansion...if you think Legion will bring them to 10m subs again you're not just crazy but delusional. They will be lucky to break 6-7m subs.

  5. #65
    Elemental Lord Felfaadaern Darkterror's Avatar
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    How do you know they aren't? Personnel matters aren't usually advertised to the public because lawyers. Some who left of their own accord may have been encouraged to do so. It's really not our business, anymore than it would be my business if you got fired.

    "I Am Vengeance. I Am The Night. I Am Felfáádaern!"

  6. #66
    I think what we see with Blizzard is that when someone who's sort of higher up in the food chain isn't performing up to expectation they just get moved to something else in the structure rather than firing them most of the time. Usually the people who are getting moved have also been with the company for 5+ years so its not like Bliz is in some hurry to just show them the door. The person by then has likely built up some degree of goodwill and confidence in their abilities so Bliz just finds other ways to try and get them to contribute. ie moving them to a different game or position.

  7. #67
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    They have nearly 7000 employees. Trust me, people have been fired. It's just, one, not anyone important and high-up, and two, why the hell would they tell us? Their internal staffing is none of our business.
    I agree with you.

    They fire people all the time. Just those people are low level. It is really rare that management, especially senior management gets fired.

    They would let the public know if the firing was our business. Such as a senior VP did something which negatively affected stock prices. Shareholders have a legal right to know that type of stuff.

  8. #68
    Deleted
    It all depends on what these mistakes/errors/fuckups are.

    You have a contract with your employer, which for these guys will be Blizzard. When I worked for Sega there was no kind of game performance related criteria in my contract. I turned up, did my work and whatever happened with a game once it was released into the wider world was what happened. That was a fairly low level position though, only working on the code but again none of my team leaders were sacked if a particular game did badly. Although it is worth mentioning Sega were & still are a publisher, so it was very much going from title to title providing additional staff for development studios that published through Sega.

    It makes sense it will mostly be the same at Blizzard. Any clauses that relate to commercial performance of WoD in contracts will actually very likely have been met. The game subs rose enormously when it came out remember, meaning by all actual measurable means - it was a success. Being a commercial success is of course very different to being a success among fans. However, if you tried to let a staff member go after that odds are they'd be able to make a strong argument for unfair dismissal. You can't sack people for positive PR. Generally the only time someone senior within companies across the board is let go is for gross misconduct. Some can even survive that.

  9. #69
    High profile employees rarely get fired, they wouldn't be the faces of a multi-billion company if there was anyone better suited to fill that position, so they are pretty much "required" at that point in time.

    Now, considering the prestige, experience and success required to get there.. even if they were internally "fired".. they aren't random 18yos working at McDonalds, so
    I'm pretty sure tweeting about how 'they got fired' would be some kind of stunt that doesn't do any good to the their professional career.

    In which case, beneficially to both parties, they would be allowed to say 'I leave'.

  10. #70
    They obviously have fired lots of people. Blizzard treats their employee quite well in general though.

  11. #71
    Merely a Setback Kaleredar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sorrxz View Post
    But making it look as if they keep anyone despite of the failures in last years gives customers a bad message too. Do they even care?
    Whose failures?


    Are you just assuming "people failed in some spectacular way" and that's why WoD was bad or talents suck or why you didn't get a free sparkle horse in the mail or something?

    And even WERE that the case, why would you be privy to know about the inner functions of a private business?
    “Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
    Quote Originally Posted by Wells View Post
    Kaleredar is right...
    Words to live by.

  12. #72
    OP should get hired by blizzard and then do everything in his/her power to get fired. Then come tell us all about it.

  13. #73
    Quote Originally Posted by Keltas View Post
    Most investors don't give a shit about a games integrity or if it's "fun", they look at the profits.

    If they see back to back to back to back quarterly sub losses, I'm sure they'd want some people fired and replaced. They invested so they could make money off of it, not so people can have something they enjoy.


    The developers making mistakes in the players eyes is irrelevant if it turns a profit.


    If I was an investor and saw such bad sub losses that many quarters in a row, and then them being like "we just won't be telling you that number anymore", I'd be asking for some changes or selling off, because that looks really bad.
    You do realize investors have nearly no say in management? Aside from deciding Activision-Blizzards officers, they can't exactly fire people. Thats part of why they have limited liability, because they do not manage the company at all. Investors wouldn't yell at blizzard to fix it if they start losing money, they invest elsewhere.

  14. #74
    Wait what? What proof do you have that no body gets fired? I know quite a few that were fired early in WoW's history - one being that clown who started a pointless petition.
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  15. #75
    Because having a different opinion than you on the subject of game development is not grounds for getting fired.

  16. #76
    When you are at a certain level (like those who are usually exposed) you are often times told to resign and are not fired. This could have been the case with many and then they just give a little farewell address and are off on their merry way.

  17. #77
    The Lightbringer Nathreim's Avatar
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    Someone should be fired for WoD....out of a cannon into the sun.

  18. #78
    They do. It's just often not public and typically not public figures. Firings also aren't generally as common as they are in low end service jobs.

    Typically they just ask for resignations to allow for PR spins if relevant, to leave the door open for future employment options, and to give them time to train your replacement while still paying you for a few more weeks, and thus time to get on the job hunt.
    Quote Originally Posted by Connal View Post
    From my perspective it is an uncle who was is a "simple" slat of the earth person, who has religous beliefs I may or may not fully agree with, but who in the end of the day wants to go hope, kiss his wife, and kids, and enjoy their company.
    Connal defending child molestation

  19. #79
    Of course people got fired... I work in a decent size company and my department has about 1000 employees in the same building. After 3 years, I still haven't talked to at least 80% of them. And of the 200 I've come to know, there were maybe 5 people fired and 5 people pushed to leave (people finding new jobs because it becomes very clear they are about to get fired within the next 6 months).

    I say "maybe" because it's never talked about openly during work hours. People just disappear and a few weeks later you hear a rumor they were fired. It's always handled discreetly for all parties involved.

    So if you take Blizzard, with its 5k+ employees, most of which completely anonymous to gamers, of course you don't hear about firings.

    In addition, it would be a very bad idea for both the company and the employee to talk about it as it would damage their reputation. Unless it's gross negligence, employees fired for under-performing are usually still given a recommendation to help their transition to another company. Why would the employee then make it public he got fired?

  20. #80
    Has anyone been fired at your work? Because i've not read any announcement that they have, so i assume that your work has never fired anyone either.

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